Foreign Finds

Friday, August 31, 2007

Last night I got back to my normal CRH'ing routine. We also got a chance to relax at home and enjoy some of our farm share produce. Both were great.

I first went through a small lot of hand rolled coin I got yesterday. I searched 200 quarters, 450 dimes, 360 nickels, and 900 pennies. I found one Canadian nickel, one UK 20 pence, seven Wheats and eight Canadians. No new varieties were in the mix.

I also went through six boxes of dimes. The first two were solid 2007P's and so I didn't bother to even open them. The next four were quite lousy. In one of the boxes I found two silver Rosies (1952D, 1958D). Otherwise they were skunks. And so I passed the 200,000 dime mark with a bit of a whimper. Oh well, better luck next week.

This morning I began working on the boxes of pennies. I managed to finish one box. In it were ten Wheats, eighteen Canadians, and one US dime (finding these in boxes of pennies has been a pretty rare event).

Thursday, August 30, 2007

We're back. Our trip was great. We went up to Vancouver and had a good time. Vancouver is a beautiful city. I sure wish the dollar was stronger like previous times I have been to Canada, but regardless it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. I used PriceLine to get us a good deal on the hotel ($100/night) and we saved a bit by buying breakfast and snacks at a nearby grocery store.

While there I managed to do some coin roll hunting! (No surprise to my friends, I'm sure.) I went through a lot of quarters. I'm not sure how many, but I got seven rolls from two banks and abused a bunch of vending machines (put change in, hit the "Return Change" button). In total I found 22 varieties I needed. They were 2000 Health, 2007 RCM, 2000 Community, 2007 Para. Curling, 2007 Ice Hockey, 2005 Sask., 2002 Canada Day, 2007 Curling, 1976, 2005 Alberta, 1995, 2004 Poppy, 1992 Alberta, 2000 Creativity, 2006 Bravery, 2000 Family, 2006 Breast Cancer, 2000 Natural Legacy, 2000 Pride, 1999 March, and 1992 Sask. I even came across two US quarters in the bank rolls, one of which I needed Montana 2007D. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be to find 1992 and 1999 commemoratives.

I also went through some dimes and nickels. I found two dime varieties I needed, 1996 and 2003 Royal Diademed. In circulation I came across two US nickels.

I asked for half dollars at the two banks I went to, but neither had them. One teller even told me, "they don't come like that."

While in Canada I redeemed three cans for the hell of it. I got 15 cents. They have a great recycling program in the province that gives varying amounts for different redeemables.

While dumping my waste coins this morning I realized that I passed by a New Zealand one cent in some dime rolls.

(The picture isn't a picture of the actual coin I found. It is the same type, however.)

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Good news! My West Coast coin expedition has been going better and we're having a great time.

Yesterday I stopped by a few banks to dump and get more coins. I got a big mess of hand rolled pennies. Today I supplemented it even further with a mix of hand rolled stuff and machine rolled stuff. In total I went through 14,950 pennies! In that bunch I found 47 Wheats, 94 Canadians, 1 UK penny, 1 Canadian dime, 4 US dimes (2 in one roll!), 1 Euro 5 ¢, 1 Swedish 50 ore, and 1 German 2 Pfennig. The finds included two varieties I needed 1917S and 1923. (I found the two state quarters I needed too, but I accidentally put them into the Coin Star machine a day later. At least they aren't rare!)

Over the past few days I've gone through 22,350 pennies! In those I found 66 Wheats (.29%), 146 Canadians (.65%), and 9 other (.04%). The Wheat ratio is less than half than I've experienced in the northeast.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Yesterday after twelve or so hours of travelling my wife and I arrived in Seattle. All went pretty well except that the line for the rental was very long. It took over an hour to get the car. Oh well, despite being dead tired we had fun yesterday and have started to feel more relaxed. Today with more rest and a fresh shave I think things will be even better.

A couple of hours after arriving I managed to get to a bank out here (bless my wife!). At the bank I got the three Presidential dollars I needed, Washington D, Adams D, and Jefferson D (I dumped the ones I didn't need at restaurant last night, the waitress asked if they were real.). I also got two boxes of pennies and 2,400 hand rolled pennies.

I went through the hand rolled pennies first. In them I found thirteen Wheats and nine Canadians. Not too bad, I thought. No new varieties, but the mix of mint marks was excellent. After that I went through the two boxes I got. These were not as good, out here they come in clear plastic wrappers, which is good for silver searching, but stinks for pennies and nickels. It took me about twice as long as usual to search them and reroll them. I don't think it was worth my effort, I only found eight Wheats and forty-three Canadians.

Today I think I'll go looking for the two state quarters I still need, Montana D and Idaho D. I'll probably try to pick up some hand-rolled pennies as well.

Before I left I went through a box of nickels. In the box I found one dateless Buffalo, one War Time (1945P), three Canadians, and one Bermuda 5¢.

Found: 3 pennies (2 at the St. Louis Airport, 1 at the Seattle Airport), 1 dime (on the tarmac in St. Louis)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Things started off on a better note yesterday when I got my Monday coins and saw that for the first time in a few weeks the dimes weren't all 2007P's.

When I got home I first went through the quarters. In them I found one silver quarter (1964), twelve Canadians, and one French 1 Franc coin. The silver quarter is a nice looking one, but unfortunately it's a variety of which I already have two. It was sure nice to find one though! One of the Canadians was one I needed too, 1990.

The two boxes of dimes produced one Mercury (1943) and two Canadians. The Mercury's an upgrade and while the turn-out for these two boxes was low it was much better than the double skunk I had gotten used to.

The real story of the night and morning was the four boxes of pennies I got. In them was 282 Wheats and 47 Canadians! Even stranger was that about half of the Wheats were S's. And this is right before our West Coast trip. Very strange, I think. I got seven new varieties from these boxes (1916, 1941S, 1946S, 1947S, 1949D, 1954S, 1955S). Here's the year/mint breakdown.

Monday, August 20, 2007

This weekend was a slow weekend for coin roll hunting. My wife and I visited with a lot of family and spent time working on our yard and finishing unpacking.

After dumping a big bunch of coins on Saturday I picked up some hand rolled stuff. I went through one Eisenhower, four half dollars, 360 quarters, 400 dimes, and 797 nickels, but didn't find anything. No Canadians even showed up. :( The most exciting thing was one roll of nickels had 33 nickels and four pennies in it. Oh well, the 1,500 pennies I went through were a good batch. In them was fourteen Wheats and nineteen Canadians. No new varieties though.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Last night and this morning I went through the coins I got yesterday afternooon. The 400 hand rolled quarters I got only produced one Bermuda 25¢, but the 10,000 pennies produced alot. In them I found sixty Wheats and seventy-six Canadians. In that mix were three varieties I needed, 1935D, 1951S, and a 1947 Canadian. That's a good batch these days! I also surpassed 1,000 Wheats and 2,000 Canadians.

My wife and I also enjoyed a dinner at the Olive Garden last night. It was a good time, nice to go out on a week night together.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Last night I didn't do any coin roll hunting. I took a nice break. Instead I went through my Canadian albums and tried my best at updating them. I'm going to print out some stickers to update the albums to 2007. They're a bit inaccurate past 2002 as well. Finding good information on Canadian coins online is quite tough. Luckily, some forum users have been very helpful.

I found one new Canadian nickel I missed in the past few days, too!

Today at the bank I tried out my new cart. It worked great. A teller saved 14 Eisenhower dollars for me. There were no new varieties in the mix, but there might be an upgrade in there.

I also got another free year to Popular Mechanics through the My Coke Rewards program! A co-worker's Barq Root Beer habit is helping things out a lot. Thanks TH!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Well, last night on the way home from work I stopped at Lowes. It was easy to return coin cart #2 to them. After that I went into the store and selected a more solid cart. It's cheeper too, $20.

Last night and this morning I worked through three boxes of coins and some hand rolled stuff. I first went through a box of pennies. It produced sixteen Wheats, twenty-three Canadians and one Bermuda penny. In the four boxes of pennies I got on Monday there were no new varieties ... major bummer. I next went through two boxes of nickels and 400 hand rolled nickels. Things went better with them. I found one dateless Buffalo, two War Times (1944P, 1945P), seventeen Canadian, two US pennies, one UK 20 pence piece (worth 40¢), and one Dominican Republic 5 Centavos piece (worth .1¢), . One of the Canadians was a variety I needed, a 1950 George VI! That's my first George nickel and the oldest Canadian nickel I've found.

Here's my Canadian records:

Oldest Canadian penny found in US circulation - 1920*Oldest Canadian nickel found in US circulation - 1950Oldest Canadian dime found in US circulation - 1943 (x2)Oldest Canadian quarter found in US circulation - 1946

* - 1920 was the first year Canada produced a cent the same size as the US cent. Before 1920 their cent was much larger. This record will probably stand.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Yesterday my replacement coin cart died. It hadn't been working too well since I got it and yesterday it gave out. I'm going to try and return it at Lowes tonight and get a third, this time non-collapsible coin cart.

At the bank at lunch I picked up my Monday coins. For the third week in a row the two boxes of dimes they gave me were all brand new 2007P dimes. :( I gave one of them right back to another teller in exchange for some hand rolled coins.

In the evening I went through 5,160 quarters (2 boxes and some hand rolled). In the mix I found three Canadians, one Bermuda 25¢, and one Domincan Republic 25 Centavos piece (worth .8 cents!). I didn't find any silver quarters. Sadly my find rate for silver quarters sunk below .01%. To me that's the the mark of futility. I'll go on a bit more and see if I can bring the find rate up.

I also searched 600 hand rolled dimes and retreived two Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢.

This week I decided to concentrate a bit more on pennies. To that end I got four boxes yesterday. I have only managed to get through three of them so far. I've found thirty-nine Wheats and fifty-eight Canadians. No new varities yet, but I have found some upgrades.

Monday, August 13, 2007

This weekend I did some more coin hunting. There was some work to be done to finish up the big batch I got on Thursday.

I searched 6,120 nickels (2 boxes and some hand rolled) and found three War Time nickels (2 x 1943P, 1945S), twenty-four Canadians, two Aruba 25¢ (worth 14 cents each), one Eire 10 pence piece, and one Swiss 20 Rappen. (Chris, in that mix was 71 pre-1959 nickels.) No new varieties were found. The search for those last three Jefferson nickels goes on.

I also searched 9,900 pennies (2 boxes and a big bag of hand rolled). In that bunch I found forty-four Wheats, 444 Canadians, one dime and one mint clipped penny. I found three varieties I needed in all of that, a 1953S, a 1944 Canadian and a 1958 Canadian. That sure was a lot of Canadians. Someone must have cashed in a ton at some US bank!

While cashing in the waste coins at my bank I ran into the Coin Star guy. I saw a slip that said the machine had over $12,000 in it. In that there were only two halves! From the two tellers at the bank I got twenty-two loose halves and two Eisenhower dollars. One of the dollars was spotted and scratched. It was one I needed though, a 1976D Type II, now I need just three more to complete my album!

This weekend was pretty green too. We got a gas lawn mower which I used on Sunday. I feel bad, but I had to do it, I don't think a push mower would have done it and I think a corded one would be dangerous for me. I'm quite a klutz. We did, however, use our compost pile for all of our clippings and air dry two loads of laundry. I think the neighborhood birds might be snacking on our compost, but I don't mind. It's still being recycled!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Last night and this morning I broke the half million mark. I've searched 500,000 coins. How crazy is that?

Last night I first searched 5,200 quarters (two boxes and some hand rolled). In the bunch I found ten Canadians and two Bermuda quarters. Three of the Canadians were ones I was looking for, 1999 November, 2000 Wisdom and 2000 Harmony.

After that and this morning I searched 13,350 dimes. In them six silver Rosies (1946 x 2, 1947, 1960D, 1961D, 1962D), twenty-one Canadians, two UK 5 pence pieces, two Aruba 10 dimes, one Ecuador 10 Centavos piece, and one US penny turned up. The penny was found in a bank roll. It was purposely cut down to dime size. There were no new varieties in the mix, but the 1947 was a big upgrade.

I've got a big mess of nickels and pennies to keep me busy this weekend.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

My wife just had her second ultrasound. Everything looks good. A little baby is on their way!

The baby brought some sweet silver too! At the bank two tellers saved some coins for me. One teller had two silver dimes for me (1950, 1957) and another had one silver dime (1947D), three Canadian dimes, eleven Canadian quarters, one Franc, and one UK 5 pence. One of the dimes, 1947D, was one I needed, and one of the quarters is a silver one, 1946, my first King George VI quarter. Now I have just eleven silver Rosies to find! (One of the Canadian quarters was one I needed too, 1977.)

In the past two days I managed to finish my boxes from Monday. In two boxes of nickels I found one Buffalo (a pretty good 1936), two War Times (1942S, 1945P), eleven Canadians, and one Euro 5 cent piece. And the two boxes of pennies produced twenty-eight Wheats, thirty Canadians, and two Bahama pennies. No new varieties were discovered.

Between checking out clothes dryer prices and getting a $13 hair cut I bought a new coin cart at Lowes. It folds like the old one, but is much stronger.

I also saw the Bourne Ultimatum with my dad and grandfather. It was really good. The action was non-stop and the film was quite humorous at times. If action films are your thing go out and see this one.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Yesterday I was lucky in two regards. In the first one a teller I know saved me a 1964 half dollar (90% silver) and in the second one my hand cart completely broke down on the way out of the bank. If it had broken on the way into the bank it could have been a disaster. (I'll have to get a much more robust one.)

I did a little coin hunting last night. I first went through a bunch of hand rolled coins, 280 quarters, 350 dimes, and 320 nickels, but found only three Canadian quarters and two UK 5 pence pieces. One of the Canadian quarters, a 1992 Nova Scotia, was one I needed.

I then went through two boxes of quarters. Both were complete skunks. That happens a lot with quarters so I wasn't too dismayed. The two boxes of dimes I searched were much better. In them I found five silver Rosies (1946, 1952, 1954, 1963D, 1964), five Canadians (including a 1943), and one Barbados dime. There were no new varieties in that mix, but the Barbados dime was a new one for me. (What were the chances my third Canadian dime would be the same year as the one I found a few days ago?!)

Monday, August 6, 2007

Despite being sick with colds my wife and I survived our first weekend in our new house.

I did a little coin roll hunting. I found 3 War Time nickels (1943P, 1944D, 1944D), 7 Canadians, 1 US penny, and 2 Singapore 20 cent pieces in two boxes. In one box of pennies I found nine Wheats and seventy-eight Canadians, no new varieties. I also visited my new weekend dump bank. It's bit farther away, 15 minutes, but the coin machine is a robust one and it's in its own private alcove. I dumped about 35,000 coins this weekend!

In preparation for next the tax free holiday next weekend we went to Home Depot and Lowes. We had a big list of things to look over. We found some light switch covers, saw that CFL light bulbs of non-standard shapes and sizes were pretty expenisve ($5 a bulb!), saw that ceiling fans were cheaper than we thought, and found a few push mowers for sale. Home Depot had one energy efficient ceiling fan for sale, but it was bit ugly. The guy at Lowes didn't know what I was talking about when I asked about them.

This morning I did a little research on push mowers. Looks like a bad news. A few people rave about them, but others give them some bad marks. I'll have to think about it more. I love the idea of going green with the lawn, but am a bit hesitant to spend $150 on something that doesn't work.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Last night was a good night in roll hunting. I got my usual Thursday allotment and went through half of it.

The two boxes of quarters I got were terrible. In them I only found one Canadian and unfortunately it wasn't one I needed.

The four boxes of dimes I got, however, were very good. In them I found six silver Rosies (1954, 1959, 1960, 2 x 1964, 1964D), three Mercs (1936D, 1942, 1945), one silver Canadian (1943), eleven other Canadians, a Panamanian 10 Centesimo, and a Columbian 10 Centavos. In the boxes I found four varieties I needed, one Rosie, two Mercs and one Canadian! I even broke two records. The most Mercs I have found in one box is now two and the oldest dime I've found is now 1936D. I have now completed a roll of extra silver dimes (worth $40-50) and have only twelve varieties left to find!

(These aren't my scans, but they are same type of coins as the ones I found.)

This morning I went through a crazy box of pennies. In it was twenty-seven Wheats and 167 Canadians. No new Wheat varieties, but I did find two Canadians I needed, 2002P and 2003P No Crown.

I've also been looking into two big purchases for our house that have some green implications, a clothes dryer and a lawn mower. I visited the Energy Star website on Wednesday to see if they approved any clothes dryers and found this odd statement. It seems Energy Star doesn't rank dryers. They do recommend looking for one with a moisture sensor so you don't waste energy drying dry clothes. I'll definitely look for that.

I also looked into the different types of lawn mowers and how good they are for the environment. It seems gas mowers are terrible for the environment (no surprise), electric mowers are a much better, and push mowers are as good as it gets for the environment. Right now I'm thinking about a push mower. I think if I bought an electric mower it'd only be a matter of time before I ran over the cord. (I've run over my vacuum cord countless times.)

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Last night was a slow night. I only went through one box of pennies and two boxes of nickels. The box of pennies produced fifteen Wheats, twenty Canadians and one Bahamas 1 cent. The two boxes of nickels produced two War Time nickels (1944P, 1945P) and six Canadians. No new varieties were found.